Pros

Long, 15-hour battery life

Customizable on Android

USB-C wired and Qi wireless charging case

Good sound with decently neutral frequency response

Cons

Case battery life is mediocre at best

Both the Samsung Galaxy Buds and Amazon Echo Buds are great in their own right. However, Amazon's newest Echo Buds easily beat out the Galaxy Buds in several ways including much longer battery life, better support on iOS, and active noise cancelation.

What sets them apart?

Source: Android CentralPictured: Samsung Galaxy Buds.

Being truly wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds and Echo Buds have many things in common. They both feature auto-pause/play when you remove an earbud or put one back in respectively and have a required charging case that is relatively small and should fit in most people's pockets. Both buds feature in-ear designs, which require silicone tips and include several different ear tip sizes in the box.

Battery life will be the biggest differentiator between the two earbuds. The Galaxy Buds last up to six hours on their own while the Echo Buds net you five hours. A one-hour difference isn't a huge deal, but where the Echo Buds pull ahead is with its charging case. The Echo Buds case is able to give you up to 15 additional hours of listening time while the Galaxy Buds only adds seven.

However, the Galaxy Buds has the edge when it comes to how you charge your earbuds. It offers USB-C for wired charging and is wireless charging capable, while the Echo Buds uses the outdated Micro-USB connector and doesn't offer any type of wireless charging.

Sound quality is solid on both buds. Neither are great but both are good in their own right. The Galaxy Buds lack bass almost entirely throughout, while the mids are fairly neutral. The low- and mid-treble is neutral, and the upper-treble is slightly boosted which means the Echo Buds may be slightly piercing and sharp for some.

The Echo Buds takes sound quality slightly differently with an overall punchy bass that's overemphasized by a good margin. The mids are neutral, flat, and natural, while the treble is underemphasized slightly, giving the Echo Buds a warmer and darker sound overall.

Amazon Echo Buds

Samsung Galaxy Buds

Bud battery life

5 hours

6 hours

Case battery life

15 hours

7 hours

Wireless charging case

No

Yes

Active noise reduction (ANR)

Yes

No

Ambient sound mode

No

Yes

Here's where it gets kind of funny. The Galaxy Buds feature an ambient sound mode that let you hear your surroundings without removing a bud. However, the Galaxy Buds don't feature active noise reduction (ANR) at all. The Echo Buds are the reverse, where they feature ANR but don't include an ambient sound mode. The ambient sound mode on the Galaxy Buds is excellent. It amplifies the sound around you without making it sound unrealistic.

The ANR on the Echo Buds are pretty good. It's powered by Bose, and is a notch worse than the active noise cancelation (ANC) tech it uses for over-ear headphones. Compared to other ANC truly wireless earbuds such as the Sony WF-1000XM3 and AirPods Pro, the Echo Buds perform slightly worse than both. It still blocks out a good amount of low-end noise, but struggles a bit everywhere else, making them ideal for commuters and office use.

Source: Android CentralPictured: Echo Buds.

Comfort is superb on both the Galaxy Buds and Echo Buds. Both are relatively small and compact, with the Echo Buds only being slightly larger than the Galaxy Buds. They both come with the standard small, medium, and large silicone ear tips so size and fit won't be much of an issue. Neither will give you any sort of ear fatigue, nor will they fall out of your ear with a proper fit.

At the end of the day, the Amazon Echo Buds are the better option here. Battery life on the Galaxy Buds is simply not good enough for a truly wireless earbud. The Echo Buds feature up to 20 hours of listening with the included charging case and that's with ANR enabled. It may be lacking an ambient sound mode but that can be easily combated by simply removing one earbud if you need to.